CHAPTER VIII. 



THE FEATHERED TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



THE BALD OH WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 

 ['HE white-headed eagle takes precedence among the 

 feathered tribes of America, because he stands 

 first in natural order, and has been selected by the 

 people of the United States as their heraldic emblem. Their 

 choice was, by-the-by, objected to by Benjamin Franklin, on 

 the plea " that it is a bird of bad moral character, and does 

 not get his living honestly." There was justice in the re- 

 mark, for the bald eagle is a determined robber, and a perfect 

 tyrant. He is, however, a magnificent bird, when seen with 

 wings expanded, nearly eight feet from tip to tip and a body 

 three and a half feet in length his snowy white head and 

 neck shining in the sun, and his large, hooked, yellow beak 

 open as he espies, afar off, the fish-hawk emerging from the 

 ocean with his struggling prey. Downward he pounces with 

 rapid flight. The fish-hawk sees his enemy approaching, 

 and attempts to escape ; but, laden with the fish he has just 

 captured, in spite of the various evolutions he performs, he 

 is soon overtaken by the savage freebooter. With a scream 



